Ukraine Leads World in Drone Innovation and Production
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Executive Summary:
- Resilience, innovation, adaptation, and quick learning have allowed Ukraine to stay one step ahead of Russia in the world’s first integrated drone, digital, and cyber war.
- Ukraine’s military-industrial complex has significantly grown during the war, with the private sector and government working closer together for weapons development. Wars are won in laboratories and factories as much as on the battlefield.
- Ukraine’s drone tactics have allowed it to combat Russian aggression in numerous ways, including destroying one-third of its Black Sea Fleet, targeting weapons storage within Russia, and combatting Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities.
The world’s first drone, digital, and cyber war is taking place in Ukraine. Previously, these wars were one-sided, as seen when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (2001–2021) and Azerbaijan (2020) used drones against Afghan and Armenian combatants, respectively, who did not possess equivalent technology. In Russia’s war against Ukraine, both sides are using domestic and foreign drones, but Ukraine has a ten-to-one advantage in the number of drones on the front (X.com/ChrisO_wiki, August 21; Golos Amerikii, September 19). Resilience, innovation, adaptation, and quick learning have allowed Ukraine to stay one step ahead of Russia. Horizontal ties between civil society, volunteer groups, a decentralized government, and the military combine to make Ukraine fundamentally different from Russia’s vertically organized, authoritarian state and society.
Ukraine is fighting a people’s war that includes domestic and foreign volunteers, tractor and truck drivers, and the private sector (see EDM, March 16, 2022). Ukrainians in occupied territory use their mobile phones to collect data on Russian troops, passing information to the military through the eVorog app (Kmu.gov.ua, May 15, 2022; Ukrinform, August 6, 2022). Surveillance cameras in shops, offices, and roads are used as intelligence sources on Russian troop movements. Other Ukrainians work alongside foreign volunteers in Ukraine’s information technology (IT) army, hacking and launching cyber-attacks against Russia, contributing to the “civilianization of the digital battlefield” (see EDM, July 3). 3D printers, tablets, mobile telephones, and laptops donated by volunteers are used on the frontlines as targeting tools and to make spare parts.
Ukrainians have adapted a wide array of Western weapons to Ukraine’s war conditions and have learned to use them quickly. Ukrainians have used the Patriot missile system to destroy Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, previously described as “unstoppable” by Russian President Vladimir Putin (Novaya Gazeta, May 10, 2023). Missiles designed for NATO jets have been adapted for use by Ukraine’s Soviet-era jets. British harpoon anti-ship missiles traditionally fired from naval vessels have been adapted to be fired from land-based military vehicles.
Ukraine’s military-industrial complex has grown during the war (BBC Ukrainian Service, September 18). Nearly every second piece (41 percent) of ammunition on the front line is Ukrainian-made, up from 18 percent in 2023. Ukraine’s military production is supplied by 70 state-owned companies and 400 private companies and start-ups, employing 300,000 personnel. Of these 400 private firms, 200 companies specialize in unmanned ground, air, and sea systems, 50 in electronic warfare, and 150 in all types of weapons. Drones and other military products are also jointly manufactured with foreign partners, principally the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Czechia, Denmark, and Türkiye (Defense Ekspress, September 18; Mil.in.ua, October 2).
Ukraine’s production of one million drones a year is higher than any NATO member, including the United States. According to Ukrainian officials, the country has the capacity to build four million drones annually, but lacks the necessary financing to do so (Kyiv Independent, July 31; President.gov.ua, October 1). Funding for advanced first-person view (FPV) drones and interceptor drones will come from Ukrainian tenders to the Drone Coalition, composed of sixteen NATO members within the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (Ramstein Format) (Mil.in.ua, September 23).
Wars are won in laboratories and factories as much as on the battlefield. To increase innovation, Ukraine has minimized the bureaucracy which remains endemic to NATO militaries. Private companies in Ukraine receive quick approvals and contracts, allowing the country to innovate, produce, and deploy weapons rapidly. Private companies build prototypes, which they send to military units to test, who send feedback, and prototypes with good feedback are exhibited to the Ministry of Defense, and the government launches production (Kmu.gov.ua, accessed October 8).
On September 16, Ukraine established the Unmanned Systems Forces, a new branch of its military focused solely on unmanned systems—the first country to do so globally (President.gov.ua, February 6; Anadolu Ajansı, September 16). Additionally, Ukraine has an “extensive” 3-year plan for drone and ground robot production (Kyiv Independent, September 25).
Ukrainian forces are using an interceptor drone produced by the Ukrainian company Besomar to shoot down Russian and Iranian drones. Other drones are being automated to fire machine guns. The Wild Hornets volunteer group has built a drone that fires an AK-74 machine gun while another drone fires 82-millimeter mortar rounds. The Aero Azimuth balloon’s electronic warfare system detects and targets enemy drone operators, which can then be targeted. “Dragon drones” emit molten thermite at 2000 degrees Celsius, hot enough to cut through steel (Kyiv Independent, September 3, 4). Ukraine produces ground “robot dogs” and larger robots for transporting supplies and evacuating wounded. Other drones use artificial intelligence (AI) to fire unmanned machine guns (Kyiv Post, September 10).
The United States, United Kingdom, and other NATO members built drones costing hundreds of millions of dollars for use in the long war in Afghanistan. Ukraine’s drones, however, are far cheaper, with basic FPV drones costing as little as $300–400 and sea drones costing $50,000–100,000. US Replicator drones cost up to ten times as much. The “iPhone” of Ukrainian unmanned systems is the Shark reconnaissance drone, which has advanced technology and is easy to use and repair. Ukrainian commanders predict that AI will drive and target drones without the use of pilots by the middle of next year (UNIAN, September 18).
FPVs and maritime drones damage and destroy Russian tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers, military trucks, artillery, vessels, and submarines that each cost millions of dollars (see EDM, November 15, 2023). Ukrainian drones are having a devastating effect on Russian equipment and troops, with a daily casualty rate of 1,000–1,200 (Meduza, July 5; see EDM, July 16; Ukrinform, October 8). Ukraine’s drones are used to attack far-away targets and counter their Russian equivalents, as well as for reconnaissance, artillery targeting, and demining land ahead of the advance of ground forces (Euromaidan Press, September 14). Drones are also used in combined arms warfare, as demonstrated by the incursion into Kursk. Ukraine first used electronic warfare to disable Russian drones, then sent a swarm of drones to locate and target Russian forces, followed by an assault by ground forces to secure the territory. By operating in this way, Ukraine thus suffered fewer casualties (Euronews, September 1).
Ukraine’s long-distance drones, such as the Sokil (Falcon)-300, can reach speeds of 100 miles per hour, carry a payload of 660 pounds, and cover distances of 2,000 miles. These drones have been successfully used against 200 Russian military bases, military factories, airfields, oil refineries, and facilities that make up the country’s energy infrastructure in the last year (Kyiv Independent, September 23). Ukraine’s use of drones to destroy Russian ammunition dumps has significantly exacerbated the Russian military’s shortage of artillery shells (Espreso, September 18).
Marichka and Toloka maritime drones are produced through government-military-private joint ventures. They have a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour and can travel 600 miles (Newizv.ru, August 29, 2023). Equipped with cameras that feed video of the attack through satellite links—which are then posted on social media—these drones are built from materials difficult to detect by radar.
Ukraine, a country whose navy was seized by Russia in 2014, has damaged or destroyed one-third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (see EDM, March 11). The remainder of the vessels relocated to Novorosiisk and other ports in the eastern Black Sea, which have also been attacked by Ukraine (Kyiv Post, September 5). Due to this strategy and the Ukrainian grain corridor, Ukrainian exports from Odesa and Mykolayiv have returned to pre-invasion levels (Espreso, March 9; see EDM, September 26).
Innovation in a horizontally organized, democratic society has made Ukraine a world leader in drone manufacturing and usage, providing it with the means to continue its existential war with Russia.
